Last week, we got our first look at Jessica Chastain’s remarkable transformation into televangelist and camp icon Tammy Faye Bakker for director Michael Showalter’s upcoming biopic The Eyes of Tammy Faye. As outrageous as those photos were, they barely scratched foundation slathered surface! Today’s release of the film’s first official trailer gives us the broad spectrum of Chastain’s go-for-broke performance.
Based on the cult classic documentary of the same name from 2000, The Eyes of Tammy Faye tells the story of the dazzlingly over-the-top Tammy Faye’s rise, fall and ultimate redemption. Here’s how Searchlight Pictures describes the film:
“In the 1970s and 80s, Tammy Faye and her husband, Jim Bakker, rose from humble beginnings to create the world’s largest religious broadcasting network and theme park, and were revered for their message of love, acceptance and prosperity. Tammy Faye was legendary for her indelible eyelashes, her idiosyncratic singing, and her eagerness to embrace people from all walks of life. However, it wasn’t long before financial improprieties, scheming rivals, and scandal toppled their carefully constructed empire.”
From the trailer, it looks like Showalter is steering hard into the kitsch, as is only appropriate given his subject’s signature larger-than-life glamour. But it’s more than just an ironic spoof. Amid the big hair, fake eyelashes and scenes of Tammy Faye performing her “idiosyncratic” evangelical disco songs, she also goes head-to-bouffant with notorious conservative activist Jerry Fallwell (Vincent D’Onofrio) and confronts husband Jim Bakker (Andrew Garfield) about his shady dealings. The formidable Cherry Jones appears as Tammy Faye’s mother to puncture some of the glitz with no-nonsense insight. And the film’s recreation of Tammy Faye’s game-changing 1985 interview with HIV-positive gay minister Steve Pieters looks like it will have mascara running down a few cheeks.
“The thing I loved the most about Tammy is her capacity to love,” Chastain told People last week. “She knew what it felt like to not feel important, and she didn’t want anyone to experience that.”
The Eyes of Tammy Faye hits theaters on September 17.
